Vedant

I was trying to fight the heaviness on my eyelids for a while now. With a lot of effort, I finally managed to open my eyes after blinking them a few times. I could see the white curtains moving in the breeze and the morning light was pouring through the window.

I raised my hand to rub my eyes and I felt a sting on my chest. I whined a little, that's when everything that happened crossed my mind. Sid. Where is he? Is he alright? A panic emerged within me and immediately tried to get up from the bed and my chest throbbed badly which made me groan in agony.

"Ved?!!" I heard a familiar raspy voice and my head turned that way. I let out a sigh of relief.

Sid stood up from the sofa in his disheveled form. His shirt was wrinkled and there were black bags under his eyes. His chin bore a thick growth of stubble. His hair was a mess and his eyes were red.

He closed his eyes with a sigh of relief and stalked towards me and engulfed me in a bear hug.

I scoffed at his gesture and hugged him back ignoring the pain in my chest.

"Don't ever. Never do that to me again." He said and a sob left his mouth.

I pulled away from the hug and looked at his face. Tears were brimming in his eyes.

I cupped his face in my hands and wiped the tears left his eyes.

"Hey. Don't be a baby. Look I am ok now. Hmm?!!" I said in a worried voice.

He didn't seem convinced. He left a deep breath to keep himself calm and nodded his head unwillingly. It hurts to see him like this.

"So where is Priya? How is she? What about that bustard? Did Harsh reach on time? Tell me everything which happened?" I asked to change the subject.

He took another deep breath before speaking.

He briefed everything that happened. I could see that he is very worried about Priya and he was controlling himself from breaking down in front of me.

"Don't worry Sid. Everything will be fine. Give her time. She will get through it." I said while patting his cheeks and he gave me half-hearted smile while shaking his head.

Puffing he got up from the bed.

"I will get the doctor. They might want to make sure that you are alright." He said and I nodded my head in response.

I looked at his tired figure walking out the room.

In a while, a group of doctors and nurses arrived.

They asked me about how I feel and took my vitals.

After a good fifteen minutes, they left me alone and walked out of the room.

I sighed in relief and leaned back to the bed.

Keeping my hands upon my eyes and I closed my eyes again to back to my needed rest.

But I couldn't close my eyes peacefully. Now and then my eyes would move to the doors.

My ears eagerly waited for any movements from the corridor.

I badly wanted to see the face which I was dreaming of every day.

Sid said that the news is all over the media and I am sure she knows it. But why she is not coming? Does she hate me that much to not even care?

A lump formed in my throat. Will she ever forgive me? How am I supposed to tell her everything when she doesn't even want to do anything with me?

My wild thoughts held a pause when the doors opened. For a second a smile crossed my lips but it soon turned into disappointment when I saw a nurse walking in with a tray of food.

She kept the tray over the table moved in closer to me. "The doctor has instructed that you can take only light food for the time being." She said with a smile and I nodded.

"Do you want help?" She asked while removing the cover of the soup.

"No thank you. You can leave." I said.

"Okay, Mr. Aryan. If you need anything please press the button someone will be here soon to attend to you." She said before leaving the room.

I looked at the soup and sighed. I took the spoon lazily and took a spoon full soup and took a sip.

I scrunched my face because of the unappetizing taste.

But my stomach growled in protest. Hesitantly I started eating the food.

************

I singed and kept aside the file that I asked my secretary to bring this morning. It's been one week since I woke up. My wounds started to heal and the doctor said if there is no infection I will be discharged in a week. I was bored to the core from lying down for a week now. Since my wounds are healing and I am showing progress in my health my doctor allowed me to take a little walk in the morning and evening.

I was so grateful to him. I was bored to my core by lying inside the four walls for days now.

Sid never allowed me to even sit up for a few more minutes.

Sometimes it felt like he is overreacting, but I understood that he was scared and shaken to the core after everything happened.

And to his disappointment, Priya's condition was not getting any better.

She gets panic attacks often and she is not allowing him or any male for that matter to come near her.

Poor girl, the event has scarred her for a lifetime.

I cannot imagine how she was able to go through everything that happened to her. I can understand to an extent how helpless and scared it makes you watch your parent die in front of you.

But, for her, she had witnessed them getting murdered brutally in front of her.

She had to leave them without a proper goodbye. She had to go in hiding to save herself and finally got kidnapped by her parents' murderer and almost got raped by him.

How can a human being be this cruel? Thinking about them makes my blood boil. Harsh has called me in the morning to give a brief about how the investigation is going. That bastard died on the spot but for our luck, that woman survived.

She gave her statement against that Godman. She is our key witness in the case.

They had raided many branches of his ashram in various parts of the country and found out many pieces of evidence about the illegal activities which involves many politicians and VVIPs. This case is going to get even bigger.

Harsh needs Priya's statement for the murder investigation of her parents. Her statement makes the case stronger because she witnessed it with her eyes. But, with her present condition, it seems difficult. So they have decided to start her counseling section earlier. Today is the second day of her counseling and Sid was worried about her. He said yesterday during the section she was crying so badly.

It is taking a toll on him. He doesn't know what to do to comfort her when she does not want him anywhere near her.

And it is killing him from inside, that boy had fallen deep for her.

Sighing I decided to take the walk doctor allowed me. I had a sprain in my left leg ankle so the doctor said don't give more pressure to that leg and suggested using a cane while walking. Taking the cane from the side table I hopped down from the bed.

I was walking through the corridor towards the man sitting on a waiting bench outside the counseling room. He was wearing worn-out jeans and a white wrinkled shirt. He was leaning back to the wall with closed eyes. The beard has grown more and there were dark circles under his eyes. It was evident from his looks that he did not sleep properly for many days now.

I felt sorry for him. Slowly, I sat next to him and covered his hand with mine to give a little reassuring squeeze. He opened his eyes and looked at me with his tired eyes. He sat straight and gave me weak smile.

"How is it going?" I asked.

"It's been quite a while now. It is taking more time than yesterday." He said with concern.

"Hmm. Is there any progress?" I asked again.

"I don't know but she looked calmer than usual today morning." He said tiredly.

"It takes some time Sid. It's not easy to go through that entire trauma. She is a strong girl. She will survive this. Don't worry much." I said to comfort him. He just gave me a weak smile.

"Are you going to wait for her?" I asked.

"Yes. I want to see that she is okay. I will come to your room later. Now it is enough walking. Go back to your room and take a rest. You are not yet healed." He said worriedly.

"Yeah. okay. See you later." I said and slowly got up and started to walk back to my room.

I was about to reach the lift when I heard shouting behind me, some people came rushing with a patient in a structure towards the lift.

It was a narrow passage and while making way for them I lost my balance and the cane fell from my hand and someone pushed me back. I was getting ready to take the fall, but it never happened.

A hand came around my waist, another held my right hand keeping me from the fall. Startled by the sudden occurrence, I slowly turned my head to take a look at my savior, my breath halted, and the commotions around us faded away.

It was just us, everything around us just disappeared at that moment.

The same brown eyes I was looking for a while now were staring back at me worriedly.

A wide smile appeared on my face and I let myself drown in the depth of her eyes.

She came, Niharika came.